The Bradley Barn Sessions, a Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum exhibition, features photographs by renowned photographer Fritz Hoffmann from the recording sessions for Country Music Hall of Fame member George Jones’s 1994 album, The Bradley Barn Sessions.

From his blue-collar North Carolina roots to his place at the top of the country charts, the exhibit will trace Luke Combs’s life and career by way of musical instruments, song manuscripts, stage wear, tour memorabilia, and more.

In celebration of its twentieth anniversary, Night Train to Nashville: Music City Rhythm & Blues Revisited returns to the Museum on April 26, 2024. The acclaimed 2004–2005 exhibit explored an often-overlooked chapter of Nashville’s musical history—an influential rhythm & blues scene that thrived from the 1940s through the 1960s. And the exhibit’s companion compilation album won a Grammy in 2005. This twentieth-anniversary edition of Night Train revisits highlights from the exhibit’s debut, along with new artifacts and rare photos. 

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s annual exhibition American Currents: State of the Music offers a broad look at country music and its place in American culture over the past year. The latest installment, open now through February 2025, features music and moments from cozy clubs to arena rafters.

Western Edge examines the close-knit communities of Los Angeles-based singers, songwriters and musicians who, from the 1960s through the 1980s, embraced country music, frequented local nightclubs, and created and shaped the musical fusion known as “country-rock” – ultimately making an indelible and lasting impact on popular music.

An American Masterwork: Thomas Hart Benton’s “Sources of Country Music” at 50 explores Benton’s process in creating his final painting, which was commissioned by the Museum in 1973. The exhibit includes sketches, drawings, lithographs, photographs, and a three-dimensional model of the painting, along with a 1975 video of Benton speaking about the mural.

Patty Loveless: No Trouble with the Truth explores the influential career and enduring music of Patty Loveless. From staking out a distinctive place in country music beginning in the 1980s to her talent for finding memorable material and her embrace of traditional influences, this exhibit illustrates Loveless’s role in the genre through personal and career artifacts, photos, interviews, and more.

One of the best-selling female country singers of the twentieth century, Patsy Cline achieved iconic status following her tragic death at age thirty in 1963. Cline was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1973, and is frequently invoked as a standard for female vocalists, having inspired scores of singers including k. d. lang, Loretta Lynn, Linda Ronstadt, Trisha Yearwood, and Wynonna Judd.

DeFord Bailey was an influential harmonica player in both country music and blues, one of the Grand Ole Opry’s most popular early performers, and country’s first African-American star.

Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn—performing together as Brooks & Dunn—charged onto the country music scene in 1991. They went on to become the best-selling country duo of all time, with forty-one Top Ten hits (including twenty #1s) and two decades of packing concert arenas. They collected a mountain of music-industry honors, including two Grammys, nineteen CMA awards, and twenty-five ACM awards.

Reba McEntire ranks as the most successful female country performer of her generation, and she has been cited as a role model by nearly every successful woman to follow in her wake. She has achieved more than fifty Top Ten singles and more #1 country albums than any other female artist. McEntire has won CMA Female Vocalist of the Year four times and was CMA Entertainer of the Year in 1986. She also has won three Grammy Awards, and in 2018 received the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors for her lifetime of contributions to American culture.

Hank Williams’s legend has long overtaken the rather frail and painfully introverted man who spawned it. Almost singlehandedly, Williams set the agenda for contemporary country songcraft, but his appeal rests as much in the myth that even now surrounds his short life.